Mary D. Nichols is Distinguished Counsel for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. In December 2020, Nichols completed her tenure as chair of California Air Resources Board, a position she held since 2007 when she was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment (IoE).

Nichols received her B.A. from Cornell University (1966) and her J.D. from Yale Law School (1971). After law school, she worked as an attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles (1971-74) where she brought the first litigation under the then recently passed Clean Air Act. Nichols was employed by the State of California as the Secretary of Environmental Affairs and the Chair of the Air Resources Board (1974-78), and briefly served as Los Angeles Chief Assistant City Attorney in charge of the civil branch (1978-79) before returning to her previous position at the state (1979-1983). Nichols moved on to private environmental law consultation (1983-88), while serving as campaign manager for Tom Bradley for Governor of California (1985-86). Nichols also took on the role of Director for the People for the American Way (1987-88) before founding the Los Angeles office for Natural Resources Defense Council as senior attorney (1989-93). From 1993-97, Nichols was appointed as Assistant Administrator of Air and Radiation for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She then headed the Environment Now Foundation as Executive Director from 1997-98.

Prior to joining UCLA, Nichols served as the California Secretary for Resources (1979-2003) where she was responsible for the state’s activities relating to the management, preservation, and enhancement of its natural resources, and for the oversight of the state’s scenic, cultural, and recreational resources.

In February 2009, Nichols was awarded the Attorney of the Year award from California Lawyer Magazine (the CLAY award) for her contributions to environmental law.

Chloé F. Smith is a Climate Change Research Fellow in the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE). Chloé’s research focuses on climate change issues and solutions, with an emphasis on the transportation and aviation sectors.
Prior to joining CLEE, Chloé worked on an environmental health law and human rights project regarding toxic contaminated sites on indigenous land in Alaska. She earned her LL.M. from Berkeley Law with a certificate of specialization in Environmental Law. Previously, she practiced at the State Public Health Department in Switzerland. She also worked as a litigator in civil, corporate and criminal law. Chloé has been admitted to the Swiss bar and she received her law degree from the University of Geneva. During her first masters, she spent a semester at York University in Toronto, studying Canadian environmental justice issues.
Outside of CLEE, Chloé is a member of several non-profit organizations, including Avocat.e.s pour le Climat, a network of climate-sensitive attorneys in Switzerland. She also serves on the board of Chemical Alert Africa, which focuses on the elimination of endocrine disrupting chemicals from the environment and volunteers for Alaska Community Action on Toxics, an environmental justice organization.

LL.M. & Certificate of specialization in Environmental Law, UC Berkeley (2024)
Master of Law & Certificate of Transnational Law, University of Geneva, Switzerland (2016)
J.D. equivalent, Bachelor of Law, University of Geneva, Switzerland (2013)

Brennon Mendez (he/him) is an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law for 2024-2026, where his work will focus on environmental justice, public health, and urban policy.

Prior to joining UCLA, Mendez worked as a litigation associate at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP, where he focused on appellate litigation, class actions, and white-collar criminal defense. He maintained an active pro bono practice in which he represented LGBTQ+ refugees in immigration proceedings and victims of police brutality in federal court. He clerked for the Honorable Richard R. Clifton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Denise Grab is the Energy Law and Policy Project Director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. Before joining the Emmett Institute, Denise served as a Principal at the clean energy nonprofit RMI (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute), where she led initiatives on building electrification policy, helping to secure cutting-edge all-electric building codes in dozens of cities and states across the country, as well as the nation’s first zero-emissions standards for building appliances.